What a great commercial! And I can see why you thought it was Raul, although its not - that actor is almost a dead ringer for him! Amazing what's out there in the gene pool.
For what it's worth, Wes Craven has done some considerable revisions and reshooting of the ending of My Soul To Take. To the point where Raul's character isn't even Raul any more - it's a stuntman in gory, freaky makeup.
You know, that could be good news for me. It feels like an excuse not to bother to see the film at all, or to not wait to see the end. I remember the photo of Raul and his stunt double during the filming - at the least the stunt double got a re-shoot check!
From someone's blog today comes this not really new information about Leap of Faith:
Scoop: “Leap Of Faith” Back On Track
Here’s a scoop for you: the musical version of “Leap of Faith,” based on the 1992 Steve Martin-starring movie about an evangelist, will get a production later this year. Out-of-town first, then Broadway if things go well. A workshop of the show, with music by Alan Menken (”Little Shop of Horrors,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and lyrics by Glenn Slater, was done last year with Taylor Hackford as director and Rob Ashford as choreographer. LemonWade hears that Ashford will both direct and choreograph the show in its next incarnation, which will star Raul Esparza. But first Ashford has to do the Broadway revival of “Promises, Promises,” starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. Lemonwade.com
Judging by the previews he's a prime suspect in a case. For fans of The Daily Show, Samantha Bee's going to guest star as well, as some talk show host.
Yesss, I love her. And The Daily Show. But yeah, I was on the phone with a friend last night, and she mentioned that she saw him on the preview, so she went to check IMDB and sure enough, there it was.
Um, so yeah. Last night was pretty incredible. I don't think I really knew what it was heading in -- I kind of thought they were going to do some Latin-inspired arrangements of showtunes, or something, but it was actually a big thing to honor Desi Arnaz, his career, his influence on the American perception of Latinos, and of course, on American music. So it basically charted his career; they did a couple of arrangements of familiar stuff (like Old Devil Moon), but it was mostly stuff that he either performed, or inspired him, or was inspired by him. And so I think anybody who knows about Raul's background, knowing that, can imagine how important an opportunity this was for him, to get to perform music that he (and his parents) grew up on, and music that is very much a part of who he is. He was on fire. He looked happy and proud up there, as he should have been, and was clearly thrilled and moved to be doing this. He sounded awesome, danced, and totally killed it. It was overall a great show (but I love Latin music), and I'm so glad I saw it.